The Past & Future
by ericaj318
Summary: Ressler's old partner is back along with another member of their task force who was very involved with Agent Julian Gale. The hunt for Reddington will heat up in more ways than one. Gale/OC
1. Chapter 1

"Chief Carr wants to see you in his office," Jake said as he sat down across from Rose at their desk.

Rose looked up, "Did he seem pissed?" she asked, unsure of whether or not this would be a good visit or a bad visit.

Jake shrugged, "Couldn't tell. Just go now before he does get pissed waiting," he smiled.

Rose nodded as she locked her computer and began her walk to her boss' office. She knocked.

"Come in," she heard Carr's voice through the door. As she entered, he said, "Take a seat, Agent Locke. I have a new assignment for you. It seems recently an anonymous tip came through of 86 bodies that tie to Raymond Reddington. I know you were on the task force with Julian Gale and Donald Ressler to find Reddington 4 years ago and I think you should meet up with them."

"Sir, there haven't been any leads on him in years," she replied, not wanting to reveal why she didn't want the assignment, "I highly doubt there is anything to truly tie him him to the bodies."

"Regardless, I think it's important that you follow up," Carr ordered, "Head there now and there is no limit to how long you need to be there. Come back when you confirm that there are no leads or you can get him."

Rose nodded, "Yes sir," she agreed as she left his office, walked to her desk, grabbed her coat and headed to the address given by the tip where the bodies were.

She drove there, slowly, very unsure of this new mission. She'd been on this task force 4 years ago and before they'd been disbanded, she'd been engaged to her partner. When they were told to stop hunting Reddington, he'd gone off the deep end and she joined another team.

Rose pulled up to the ice rink after a 45 minute drive, turned off her car and took deep breath before she got up and walked in. She entered at the far side and saw that no one was in there except Gale. As she stepped onto the ice, he turned to see her, still wearing sunglasses.

"Do my eyes decieve me or is that Rose Locke standing before me?"

Rose nodded, "Hey Julian, how have you been?" she asked, remaining casual.

He got up and made his way to her, embracing her tightly within his arms once he reached her. His smell brought her mind back to a very different time in her life as she tried to shake the memory and do anything to hurry up this case and move on.

"I have been ok," he replied as he released her, keeping his hands on her arms, "I was away for a bit but now I'm back and ready to finally nail this son of a bitch. You've been a busy girl for the Bureau, haven't you?"

"I guess so," she answered, simply, "Anything come from these bodies yet?" she quickly changed subject.

"You're as icy as this place," he snapped, "I have a few identified a few bodies so far but nothing that will get him locked up yet. Have you seen Donnie since we disbanded?"

Rose shook her head, "I'm surprised he's not here. My boss sent me right over."

"I called for him but I haven't reached him yet. Let me try again," he replied, "Take a look and see if you can find anything," he offered as he walked away.

'An ice rink full of bodies,' she said outloud to herself, 'My dream come true.' Rose began unzipping body bags and checking for anything that might be useful as Julian returned to her side, placing his hand on her back once he kneeled next to her.

"Did you find anything?" he asked before adding, "You're very tense, doesn't have anything to do with me, does it?"

Rose turned to him, almost losing her balance on the ice as she did, causing him to grasp her arm to stabilize her, "I am trying to be a professional. I didn't want to come here and help with this and I had hoped I wouldn't see you again because I was afraid I'd want you again and you'd lose it just like before causing me the same pain I felt all over again," she confessed, frustrated at her feelings and her quick loss of professionalism, "Sorry, I just want to get the work done."

Julian pulled off his sunglasses and looked down at her, moving his hand from her forearm to her face, "I never wanted you to leave. I just got lost in my failure with Reddington but I am better now. I called you here to help and also because I was hoping you were available for a second chance," he admitted, his tone tender.

"We're surrounded by dead bodies," Rose replied, "This is not the time." She got up and walked away from him and began inspecting bodies across the room to get the space she needed. Her mind knew what she needed to do but her heart was weak.

Julian wasn't surprised by her reaction to his proposal but he also wasn't discouraged and he'd get her later. He continued to look through the bags as well and as Donald arrived, Julian found an interesting corpse.

"Rose!" he shouted causing her to get up and make her way to him.

"What did you find?" she asked as she reached him.

"This might be the body of Diane Fowler. Get the team in here to do more research," he requested to which she walked away to do what he wanted.

When Rose walked back in with a team to examine the find, she saw Donald and Gale together again.

"Ressler?" she said, her voice surprised.

Donald looked over at her and his lips curled into a smile, "Rose Locke, it has been a very long time. I really thought you two would have been married by now. You couldn't keep your hands off of each other back then," he said with a laugh as he walked forward to hug her.

"Some things change," she said simply, "So, what has the FBI had you up to? Anything interesting?"

Ressler shrugged off her inquiry as they walked over to the possible remains of Diane Fowler.

"You're uncharacteristically quiet," Rose replied.

"Is it her?" Julian asked the guys who had taken the body for a closer investigation.

They nodded, "Yes, she died of a single gunshot to the abdomen."

"She makes this a lot more interesting," Julian replied, "Donnie, I am going to reconstruct her living room from the night she was shot. The FBI keeps their leaders things well preserved. Meet me there later today. Rose, you and I have some things to attend to," he stated.

"Donald, are you sure you don't think you should stay and make sure everything is being handled correctly?" Rose begged, knowing if Julian got her alone, her strength would waver.

Donald shook his head, "I have a few things to get to. You two have fun catching up," he finished with a wink as he turned to leave.

"Would you join me for a cup of coffee?" Julian asked Rose once Donald had exited the rink.

"You might miss something important if you leave," she replied, hopefully.

"Nonsense," he answered, offering his arm, "Let me show you that I'm the man you once loved."

Rose closed her eyes and took a deep breath before accepting his arm, "I will always love you, Agent Gale. I just don't know if it's safe for me to go down that road again but coffee is an innocent enough start."

He put his sunglasses back on as he smiled brightly, walking her across the street to one of the thousand Starbucks in the area.


	2. Chapter 2

"Have you moved on from me?" Julian asked, getting straight to the point as he usually did. Julian Gale was never shy about getting the information he wanted.

Rose sighed, "No Julian, I haven't. I never said that I didn't want to be with you but I am not going to pretend it doesn't worry me. You get too deep into your cases and that is what makes you so good but it also makes you a risk because you can't handle failure," she confessed.

Julian nodded, pulling off his sunglasses as he looked at her reaching his hand out for hers, "I understand your fears but I am better now. I can separate my life from my cases now."

Rose took a sip of her coffee, withholding her hand for the time being, "Let's just see how working together goes and then we can decide if we have still have a future. Should we head to your reimagined crime scene?" she asked, changing the subject.

Julian sighed, placing his sunglasses back on his face, "I guess so."

Rose could tell she'd disappointed him with her choice but she couldn't just go down that road again without being 100% sure that she could handle it.

He drove them to a warehouse where his team had just finished reconstructing the scene from Fowler's death and Ressler had just walked in.

"Donald," Rose said, smiling again, realizing how much she'd missed these guys, "Are you ever gonna tell us what you've been up to?"

Donald shook his head, "Nothing interesting, I promise. So, this is the scene?" he asked Julian.

"The chair she died in is missing but everything else is the same," he replied, "The music was on and Reddington sat in this chair when he shot her. The whole room has been completely cleaned of prints."

"She probably made sure of that," Ressler commented causing Julian and Rose to look at him.

"She?" Rose asked.

"I assume Reddington has a cleaner and based on his comfort around females, I imagine he'd have a woman doing that job," he said but looked at the record player, "She might have missed the record cleaning brush," he quickly added to take the momentum off of his comment.

Rose was very curious about Ressler's insight into Reddington because even though her mind wasn't completely fresh on their work those many years ago, she didn't remember anything about Reddington having a better relationship with women.

"It's full of prints," Julian stated, his voice filled with excitement, "Will you run it?"

Ressler nodded as Rose had a thought, "Don, since when do you know so much about Reddington? I don't remember anything that would lead us to the comment you made. It's like you know him."

Julian laughed at her comment, "Can you imagine this guy who is the most straight and narrow agent in the field working directly with the number one criminal in the world? Woah!"

Ressler laughed along with Gale, "Exactly! I mean what you've said would mean he turned himself in or something equally crazy. I just spent some time looking into him again recently and I came to that conclusion," he added, sobering up from the laughter.

Rose nodded, "Mmmhm. Ok, well then run that brush and let's see what we've got. I'm gonna head back to the ice rink and see if there are any other bodies worth looking into."

"I'll come with you," Julian offered, "Donnie, will get back to us when once you hear?"

Donald nodded, "I'll meet you two there once I have some results."

The three disbanded but Julian and Rose left together and were once again in a tight confined space alone. Rose wanted to crack the car window because his smell was intoxicating to her. It filled her mind with memories and feelings she thought she had shut off when she walked away years ago.

Julian dropped one hand off of the steering wheel and laid it on her thigh, "Are you ok? You look flushed."

Rose sighed as they pulled up to a red light. She was losing control and she decided she didn't care about the consequences because no one had made her feel like he had since they day they parted ways. She leaned to his side of the car and pulled his face to her own, placing her lips to his.

Julian was surprised by her sudden change of heart but gave in willingly, running his hands up to her face, clinging to her. The kiss was only stopped by a car behind them honking the horn because the light had turned green.

Julian pulled back, both of them short of breath, "We will continue this discussion later," he said with a cocky grin.

Rose rolled her eyes but replied, "We better," before she ran her hand up his leg as he drove. She felt him tense only momentarily before relaxing into the familiarity of her touch.

One they arrived at the ice rink, the looked through more bodies, trying to stay apart because they needed to stay focused. Ressler arrived later on that evening.

"Guys, it didn't match," he announced.

"How?" Rose asked, truly surprised.

Ressler shook his head, truly void of any answer. Julian shook his head as well, "This means that the system is worse than I thought. It's rigged for Reddington by Reddington. We need to go at this from a different angle."

"What angle?" Don asked.

"You hunted him down when he went rogue with that agent last year," Julian replied, "We start there because she means something to him. Tomorrow, we start looking into Elizabeth Keen."

Rose noticed Donald avert his eyes for a moment at the mention of Keen's name but she couldn't place why. "Until tomorrow, gentleman," she commented as she began to walk back to her car.

Once she was outside, she waited and Julian came traipsing out moments later, "Are you coming back to my place?"

Rose shook her head causing him to look shocked for a moment before she grinned, "We're going to mine."


End file.
